Marked words appear in this translation and in no other English translation of this verse. Common small words and older spellings are not marked. The marks show where the wording differs, not where the meaning does.
Talal Itani· published 2012
But the notables of his people, who disbelieved, said, "This is nothing but a human like you, who wants to gain superiority over you. Had God willed, He would have sent down angels. We never heard of this from our forefathers of old.
Translation Talal Itani, ClearQuran·Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1875–1936 · published 1930
But the chieftains of his folk, who disbelieved, said: This is only a mortal like you who would make himself superior to you. Had Allah willed, He surely could have sent down angels. We heard not of this in the case of our fathers of old
Sources
Translation Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran·Public domain — copyright term expired
Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran·1930 translation, digital edition of unverified printing·None — public domain work
·Public domain — copyright term expired·retrieved 24 Aug 2026
Edward Henry Palmer1840–1882 · published 1880
Said the chiefs of those who misbelieved among his people, 'This is nothing but a mortal like yourselves who wishes to have preference over you, and had God pleased He would have sent angels; we have not heard of this amongst our fathers of yore
Sources
Translation Edward Henry Palmer, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
But the chiefs of the people who believed not said, "This is but a man like yourselves: he fain would raise himself above you: but had it pleased God to send, He would have sent angels: We heard not of this with our sires of old
Sources
Translation John Medows Rodwell, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
And the chiefs of his people, who believed not, said, this is no other than a man, as ye are: He seeketh to raise himself to a superiority over you. If God had pleased to have sent a messenger unto you, He would surely have sent angels: We have not heard this of our forefathers
Sources
Translation George Sale, English translation of the Qur'an·Public domain — copyright term expired
George Sale, English translation of the Qur'an·1734 translation, digital edition of unverified printing·None — public domain work
·Public domain — copyright term expired·retrieved 24 Aug 2026
Other languages (18)Shqip · Albanian
Krerët jobesimtarë nga populli i tij thanë: "Ky është vetëm një njeri, sikurse ju, që dëshiron të jetë më lart se ju. Po të donte Allahu, do të dërgonte melekë. Ne nuk kemi dëgjuar diçka të tillë nga etërit tanë të lashtë.
Translated by the team of Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
বাংলা · Bengali
তারপর তার সম্প্রদায়ের নেতৃস্থানীয় কাফিররা বললো: ‘এতো তোমাদের মতো একজন মানুষ ছাড়া কিছুই না। সে মূলত তোমাদের ওপর শ্রেষ্ঠত্ব লাভ করতে চায়। আর আল্লাহ (সত্যিকারার্থে আমাদের নিকট কোন রাসূল পাঠাতে) ইচ্ছা করলে অবশ্যই ফিরিশতা পাঠাতেন। এ জাতীয় কথাতো আমরা আমাদের পূর্ববর্তী পিতৃপুরুষদের সময়েও শুনিনি।’
Translated by the team of Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Dawah Association in Rabwah, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.2
Bosanski · Bosnian
Ali su glavešine naroda njegova, koje nisu vjerovale, govorile: “Ovo je samo čovjek kao i vi, samo hoće da je od vas ugledniji. Da je Allah htio, meleke bi poslao; ovakvo nešto nismo čuli od naših predaka davnih,
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 2.0.4
Hrvatski · Croatian
Ali su glavešine naroda njegova, koje nisu vjerovale, govorile: “Ovo je samo čovjek kao i vi, samo hoće da je od vas ugledniji. Da je Allah htio, anđele bi poslao; ovakvo nešto nismo čuli od naših predaka davnih,
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.1
Fulfulde · Fulani
Hooreeɓe mbatu ngun mbii'ani ɓen yedduɓe immorde e yimɓe makko ɓen: "Oo wonaani si ko o ɓanndiŋke yeru mo'on homo faalaa nde o ɓurnotoo e dow mooɗon. Sinndo Alla muuyino O jippinayno Malaa'ikaaji, min naniraani ɗum baabiraaɓe amen aranɓe ɓen".
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.2
ქართული · Georgian
თქვეს დიდებულებმა იმათგან, ვინც გახდნენ ურწმუნონი: «ეს [ნუჰი] მხოლოდ კაცია თქვენი მსგავსი, რომელსაც სურს, რომ თქვენზე აღმატებული იყოს. ხოლო ალლაჰს რომ ენებებინა, გარდმოავლენდა ანგელოზებს, ამაზე კი ჩვენი წინაპრებისგან არაფერი გვსმენია.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.7
Deutsch · German
Da sagte die aus seinem Volk führende Schar, die ungläubig war: „Dieser ist nur ein menschliches Wesen wie ihr, das einen Vorzug euch gegenüber haben will. Und wenn Allah gewollt hätte, hätte Er fürwahr Engel herabgesandt. Wir haben dies bei unseren Vorvätern nicht gehört.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.15
Ελληνικά · Greek
Είπαν (μεταξύ τους) οι αρχηγοί του λαού του, που αρνήθηκαν την πίστη: «Αυτός δεν είναι παρά μόνο ένας άνθρωπος σαν και εσάς, ο οποίος θέλει να είναι ανώτερος από σας. Αν ήθελε ο Αλλάχ (να στείλει Αγγελιαφόρους), θα έστελνε Αγγέλους. Δεν έχουμε ακούσει κάτι τέτοιο (που το ισχυρίζεται) από τους προγόνους μας.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.2
हिन्दी · Hindi
तो उनकी जाति के उन प्रमुखों ने कहा, जिन्होंने कुफ़्र किया : यह तो तुम्हारे ही जैसा एक मनुष्य है। जो चाहता है कि तुमपर वरीयता प्राप्त कर ले। और यदि अल्लाह चाहता, तो अवश्य कोई फ़रिश्ते उतार देता। हमने यह[7] अपने पहले बाप-दादा में नहीं सुना।
Translated by Azizul Haq Al-Omari
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.5
Italiano · Italian
I maggiorenti miscredenti tra la sua gente dissero: «Lui non è altro che un uomo come voi, che vuole sopraffarvi. E se Allāh avesse voluto, avrebbe fatto discendere degli angeli; mai abbiamo sentito una cosa del genere al tempo dei nostri antenati.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.2
Lietuvių · Lithuanian
24. Tačiau jo žmonių vyresnieji, kurie netikėjo, sakė: „Jis yra ne daugiau nei žmogus, kaip ir jūs, jis siekia tapti viršesnis už jus. Jei Allahas būtų norėjęs, Jis tikrai būtų galėjęs nuleisti angelus. Niekada mes nesame girdėję tokio dalyko iš mūsų senovės tėvų.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.8
Afaan Oromoo · Oromo
Qondaaltonni ummata isaa irraa kafaran ni jedhan: “Kun namuma akka keessaniiti malee waan biraa hin taane, Isin irra of caalchisuu fedha, Rabbiin odoo fedhee silaa maleykota buusa ture. kana abbootii keenya durii keessatti hin dhageenye.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.0
Русский · Russian
И знать из его народа — те, которые отвергли веру, — сказала: «Он — не кто иной, как человек, подобный вам, который хочет возвыситься над вами. Если бы Аллах пожелал, Он непременно ниспослал бы ангелов. Мы не слышали об этом среди наших праотцов!
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.1
Српски · Serbian
Али су главешине његовог народа, које нису веровале, говориле: „Он је само човек као и ви, жели предност над вама. Да је Аллах хтео, послао би анђеле; овако нешто нисмо чули од наших давних предака.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.4
Kiswahili · Swahili
Wakasema wale wakuu waliokufuru katika kaumu yake, "Huyu si chochote isipokuwa ni mtu tu kama nyinyi. Anataka kujipa ubora juu yenu. Na lau kuwa Mwenyezi Mungu angetaka, basi kwa yakini angeliteremsha Malaika. Hatukusikia haya kwa baba zetu wa mwanzoni.
Issued by the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.5
Svenska · Swedish
De otrogna ledarna från hans folk sa: ”Han är bara en vanlig människa som ni, som vill få makt över er! Om Gud hade velat [skicka oss ett sändebud], skulle han ha sänt änglar. Detta har vi aldrig hört från våra förfäder i forna tider.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.2
Türkçe · Turkish
Kavminden ileri gelen kâfirler: "Bu, sizin gibi bir insandan başka bir şey değildir. Sizden üstün olmak istiyor. Eğer Allah dileseydi melekleri gönderirdi. Biz, daha önceki atalarımızdan da bunu duymadık." dediler.
Translated by the team of the Rowwad Translation Center, in cooperation with the Rabwah Dawah Association, the Islamic Content Service Association in Languages, and the IslamHouse.com website.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.0.4
اردو · Urdu
اس کی قوم کے کافر سرداروں نے صاف کہہ دیا کہ یہ تو تم جیسا ہی انسان ہے، یہ تم پر فضیلت اور بڑائی حاصل کرنا چاہتا ہے[1] ۔ اگر اللہ ہی کو منظور ہوتا تو کسی فرشتے کو اتارتا[2]، ہم نے تو اسے اپنے اگلے باپ دادوں کے زمانے میں سنا ہی نہیں.[3]
Translated by Muhammad Ibrahim Junagarhi, developed under the supervision of the Rowwad Translation Center. The original translation is available for the purpose of expressing opinion, evaluation, and continuous development.
From QuranEnc.com, version 1.1.3
About these translations
5 cleared translations, newest first, by year of publication, so the modern English comes before the historical ones. That is an ordering by date, not a judgement. Each is shown complete — this platform never excerpts a translation — and each renders under its translator's name. No translation here is marked as the correct one.
Which translations appear here is set by copyright: they are the ones whose rights could be documented and cleared. The selection is not a judgement that these are the best.
About easy-read
Easy-read
Easy-read is a simplified pronunciation,
not authoritative — a rule-by-rule romanisation, not a reading.
Each verse ends in its pause form, as it is said when you stop there. Pauses inside a verse and other tajwid rules are not shown. It is derived from the Tanzil
Simple edition, while the Arabic above is the
Uthmani edition; both are cleared, but they are not the
same edition and their orthography differs.
Easy-read (simplified)walaqad arsalnaa noohan ilaa qawmihi faqaala yaa qawmi 'budoo llaaha maa lakum min ilaahin ghayruhu afalaa tattaqoon
DIN 31635walaqad ʾarsalnā nūḥan ʾilā qawmihi faqāla yā qawmi ʿbudū llāha mā lakum min ʾilāhin ġayruhu ʾafalā tattaqūna
Talal Itani2012 We sent Noah to his people. He said, "O my people, worship God, you have no deity other than Him. Will you not take heed?"
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall1930 And We verily sent Noah unto his folk, and he said: O my people! Serve Allah. Ye have no other Allah save Him. Will ye not ward off (evil)
Edward Henry Palmer1880 We sent Noah unto his people, and he said, 'O my people! worship God, ye have no god but Him; do ye then not fear
John Medows Rodwell1861 We sent Noah heretofore unto his people, and he said, "O my people! serve God: ye have no other God than He: will ye not therefore fear Him
George Sale1734 We sent Noah heretofore unto his people, and he said, O my people, serve God: Ye have no God besides Him; will ye not therefore fear the consequence of your worshipping other gods
These figures count the words the translations share. They measure wording, not meaning, and they do not say which translation is right.
Derived measure: mean pairwise Jaccard distance over the
lowercased word sets of the 5 renderings above —
0.54 on a scale
where 0 means identical wording and 1 means no shared words. It is
computed, not judged.
The page says a verse is worded differently only above the cut below. The cut is a stated convention, not a property of the text, and it can be changed.
The cut
0.644
Share of measured verses above it
33%
Verses above it
2,079
Verses measured
6,236
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · George Sale0.63
Talal Itani · George Sale0.57
Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall · John Medows Rodwell0.57
Edward Henry Palmer · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.56
Talal Itani · John Medows Rodwell0.55
Edward Henry Palmer · George Sale0.54
Talal Itani · Edward Henry Palmer0.52
Talal Itani · Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall0.51
John Medows Rodwell · George Sale0.49
Edward Henry Palmer · John Medows Rodwell0.49
One bar per pair of renderings, longest bar for the pair
sharing fewest words. Every pair is shown; none is singled out.
Method Wording differences — derived 13 September 2026
Method
Mean pairwise Jaccard distance over the lowercased word sets of the cleared translations of each verse. A verse is marked as worded differently when its score falls in the top third of the corpus — the cut set out in Analysis details.
As at
13 September 2026, 10:56 UTC
Gate
verify/divergence_gate.py re-derives and fails on drift
The platform does not say which is right, and does not
characterise what the difference means. The renderings are placed
together so the difference is visible; reading it is the reader's work.
7 sources
stand behind this page. Each is listed once, in the order the page first
cites it, with the licence it was cleared under and what was actually read.
Nothing on this page rests on a source that is not here.
Source Tanzil Qur'an text (Uthmani) · Uthmani, Version 1.1
Hafs/Kufan verse numbering, 6236 ayahs. The bismillah is delivered as a separate `bismillah` attribute on ayah 1 and is NOT fused into the ayah text. 112 surahs carry one: every surah except al-Fatiha, where the bismillah is ayah 1:1 itself, and at-Tawba, which has none. Sourced from the XML output; the plain-text output of the same release DOES fuse it, which is defect D1.
CLEARED. Licence read verbatim from the block embedded in this very file. Ingested exactly as shipped: no normalisation, no stripping of marks, no Unicode recomposition.
Parsed structurally from the EPUB: an h3 names the surah, one p per verse with its number in its own span. An unnumbered p is the basmala and is not a verse, except in surah 1 where the basmala IS verse 1. 112 unnumbered paragraphs were found, which is 114 surahs less surah 1 and surah 9. Text is stored VERBATIM: NFC normalisation and XML entity unescaping only, because CC BY-ND forbids modification.
CLEARED on a licence read first-hand from the translator's own download page, not from an aggregator. Tanzil also hosts this translation, but under a blanket "non-commercial purposes only" term that directs the user to the translator or publisher for permission - a hosting disclaimer, not a grant - so the grant was taken from the licensor directly. The "God" edition was ingested; ClearQuran also publishes an "Allah" edition, differing in how the divine name is rendered, which is not ingested.
CLEARED ON THE WORK, WITH TWO RECORDED CAVEATS ON THIS COPY. (1) Rights basis is the expired copyright term, NOT the redistributing repository's licence. That repository dedicates its contents to the public domain under the Unlicense while also redistributing plainly in-copyright translations (Abdel Haleem, Saheeh International, The Study Quran), so it is dedicating rights it cannot hold and its blanket grant is not relied upon here. (2) The file declares its own upstream as tanzil.net, and Tanzil attaches a non-commercial condition to its TRANSLATION distributions, though not to its Qur'anic text. Since Pickthall's copyright has expired, nobody holds rights in these words and no licence is required from anyone; Tanzil's terms are a contract binding those who download from Tanzil, which we did not. The chain is nonetheless not spotless and Anwar may prefer a clean digitisation of the 1930 printing. NOT VERIFIED: that this digital text matches the 1930 first printing rather than a later revised edition. No page images were collated. Recorded as unverified rather than presented as established. SERVED TEXT DIFFERS FROM THE CITED FILE AT ONE VERSE, 37:97: the file reads "red-hotfire" (a glued token, also in Gutenberg #16955); the served row reads "red-hot fire", restored 2026-09-13 from Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (London: George Allen & Unwin, printed for Alfred A. Knopf; 1930), p. 460, XXXVII 97 - scan archive.org in.ernet.dli.2015.216140, PDF page 475; banked data/derivation-sources/pickthall-1930-dli-2015.216140-text.pdf (sha256 70e81146c97fa3a590243a82e04e349108546074787e2551a78c616202138870) on Anwar Malik's grant.
Hafs/Kufan verse numbering, 6236 verses, keyed to mushaf order. The
bismillah is not fused into ayah 1: 1:1 carries it and no other verse
does. Verified against content check C3 at ingest.
CLEARED ON THE WORK. Term expired by every measure. The digital edition's upstream is not stated by the redistributor and the printing is unverified. No statement of purpose is recorded for Palmer because none was sourced from his own preface in this pass; nothing is asserted on his behalf.
Hafs/Kufan verse numbering, 6236 verses, keyed to mushaf order. The
bismillah is not fused into ayah 1: 1:1 carries it and no other verse
does. Verified against content check C3 at ingest.
CLEARED ON THE WORK. Term expired by every measure. TWO edition caveats. (1) The upstream is not stated by the redistributor. (2) Rodwell's own edition PRESENTS THE SURAHS IN HIS OWN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, not the mushaf order — he says so in his preface. This digital text is keyed to mushaf order, so it derives from a restored-order printing (such as the Everyman edition) rather than from Rodwell's own arrangement. Which printing is not stated and has not been established.
Hafs/Kufan verse numbering, 6236 verses, keyed to mushaf order. The
bismillah is not fused into ayah 1: 1:1 carries it and no other verse
does. Verified against content check C3 at ingest.
CLEARED ON THE WORK. Term expired by every measure. The digital edition's upstream is NOT STATED by the redistributor, so the printing it represents is unverified; Sale's text was reprinted and re-edited many times between 1734 and 1900. Recorded as unverified rather than assumed to be the first edition.
Hafs/Kufan verse numbering, 6236 ayahs. The bismillah is delivered as a separate `bismillah` attribute on ayah 1 and is NOT fused into the ayah text. 112 surahs carry one: every surah except al-Fatiha, where the bismillah is ayah 1:1 itself, and at-Tawba, which has none. Sourced from the XML output; the plain-text output of the same release DOES fuse it, which is defect D1.
CLEARED. Parallel edition, held in ayah_text_variants. It sits alongside the Uthmani spine for search normalisation and is never used to correct it.